HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

THE THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2023

 

COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY & HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS

Rep. David A. Tarnas, Chair

Rep. Gregg Takayama, Vice Chair

 

Rep. Sonny Ganaden

Rep. Greggor Ilagan

Rep. Daniel Holt

Rep. Sam Satoru Kong

Rep. Troy N. Hashimoto

Rep. John M. Mizuno

Rep. Linda Ichiyama

Rep. Kanani Souza

 

 

NOTICE OF HEARING

 

DATE:

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

TIME:

2:00 PM

PLACE:

VIA VIDEOCONFERENCE

Conference Room 325

State Capitol

415 South Beretania Street

 

 

 

Click here to submit testimony and to testify remotely or in person.

 

A live stream link of all House Standing Committee meetings will be available online

shortly before the scheduled start time.

 

Click here for the live stream of this meeting via YouTube.

 

 

 

A G E N D A

 

HB 705

Status

RELATING TO LEGISLATIVE ALLOWANCE.

Requires each house of the legislature to post a report of the legislative allowance expenditures for each member of the respective house on the legislature's website.

 

JHA

HB 706

Status

RELATING TO FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES.

Requires all members of the legislature to disclose certain relationships with lobbyists or lobbying organizations in their financial disclosures.

 

JHA

HB 707

Status

RELATING TO FALSE CLAIMS.

Makes it a class C felony to make false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims against the State or a county, or any of their departments or agencies.  Disqualifies a person from holding elective public office for a period of ten years upon conviction of making a false, fictitious, or fraudulent claim.

 

JHA

HB 708

Status

RELATING TO LOBBYISTS.

Amends the information in the statement of expenditures reports that lobbyists and other individuals are required to file with the Hawaii state ethics commission to include the identity, by bill number, resolution number, or other similar identifier, of the legislative or administrative action that was commented on, supported by, or opposed by the person filing the statement.

 

JHA

HB 709

Status

RELATING TO MANDATORY LOBBYIST TRAINING.

Requires a lobbyist training course to be designed and administered by the state ethics commission.  Makes the lobbyist training course mandatory for all lobbyists who are required to register and renew their registration with the state ethics commission.  Imposes administrative fines for violations.  Effective 7/1/2024.

 

JHA

HB 710

Status

RELATING TO GOVERNMENT.

Establishes the class C felony offense of using or making false statements or entries in matters within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the State, or any county.  Disqualifies a person from holding elective public office for a period of ten years upon conviction of making a false statement or entry.

 

JHA

HB 711

Status

RELATING TO FRAUD.

Establishes the offense of fraud as a class B felony.  Disqualifies a person from holding elective public office for a period of ten years upon conviction of fraud.

 

JHA

HB 712

Status

RELATING TO RECORDINGS OF PUBLIC MEETINGS.

Encourages boards to maintain any electronic audio or visual recording of a board meeting as a public record on the board's website regardless of whether the written minutes of the meeting have been posted.  Amends the information that must be included as part of the written minutes of board meetings.  Requires boards to provide the state archives with a copy of any electronic audio or visual recording of a board meeting before removing the recording from the board's website.  Effective 10/1/2023.

 

JHA

HB 715

Status

RELATING TO GIFTS FROM LOBBYISTS.

Prohibits lobbyists from making prohibited gifts to legislators and state employees.  Imposes administrative fines for violations.

 

JHA

HB 717

Status

RELATING TO NEPOTISM.

Beginning 7/1/2023, prohibits under certain circumstances legislators and state employees from hiring or promoting relatives and household members and from making or participating in certain other employment-related decisions and from awarding a contract to or otherwise taking official action on a contract with a business if the legislator's or employee's relative or household member is an executive officer of or holds a substantial ownership interest in that business.  Imposes administrative fines for violations.

 

JHA

HB 718

Status

RELATING TO PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION OF PROBABLE CAUSE.

Requires the campaign spending commission to serve preliminary determinations of probable cause via first-class mail, instead of certified mail.  Establishes a presumption of receipt when the preliminary determination is mailed to the address contained in a candidate or committee organizational report.

 

JHA

HB 721

Status

RELATING TO CANDIDATE COMMITTEE EXPENDITURES.

Eliminates the use of campaign funds to purchase up to two tickets for an event or fundraiser held by another candidate or committee.

 

JHA

HB 722

Status

RELATING TO CANDIDATE COMMITTEE AND NONCANDIDATE COMMITTEE FUNDRAISERS.

Amends the definition of "fundraiser" under the election law relating to the notice of intent for fundraisers and fundraising events.

 

JHA

HB 723

Status

RELATING TO THE SUNSHINE LAW.

Expands application of the State's sunshine law to legislatively appointed bodies, including task forces, working groups, special committees, and select committees.  Requires the senate and the house of representatives to hold public hearings on a biennial basis to solicit professional and public feedback on how chamber rules can better effectuate the intent of the State's sunshine law.

 

JHA

HB 724

Status

RELATING TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS.

Amends the prohibition against contributions to a candidate committee or noncandidate committee by state and county contractors to include state and county grantees and the owners, officers, and immediate family members of a state or county contractor or state or county grantee.

 

JHA

HB 726

Status

RELATING TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS.

Prohibits state and county elected officials from soliciting and accepting campaign contributions during any regular session or special session of the state legislature, including any extension of any regular session or special session and any legislative recess days, holidays, and weekends.

 

JHA

 

 

 

 

DECISION MAKING TO FOLLOW

 

Persons wishing to offer comments should submit testimony at least 24 hours prior to the hearing.  Testimony received after this time will be stamped late and left to the discretion of the chair to consider.  While every effort will be made to incorporate all testimony received, materials received on the day of the hearing or improperly identified or directed, may not be processed.

 

Testimony submitted will be placed on the legislative website.  This public posting of testimony on the website should be considered when including personal information in your testimony.

 

The chair may institute a per-testifier time limit.

 

Committees meeting in the morning must adjourn prior to the day's Floor Session.  Therefore, due to time constraints, not all testifiers may be provided an opportunity to offer verbal comments.  However, written submissions will be considered by the committee.

 

Please refrain from profanity or uncivil behavior.  Violations may result in ejection from the hearing without the ability to rejoin.

 

For remote testifiers, the House will not be responsible for bad connections on the testifier's end.

 

For general help navigating the committee hearing process, please contact the Public Access Room at (808) 587-0478 or [email protected].

 

The cable TV broadcast and/or live stream of this meeting will include closed captioning.  If you require other auxiliary aids or services to participate in the public hearing process (i.e. interpretive services (oral or written) or ASL interpreter) or are unable to submit testimony via the website due to a disability, please contact the committee clerk at least 24 hours prior to the hearing so that arrangements can be made.

 

Click here for a complete list of House Guidelines for remote testimony.

 

FOR AMENDED NOTICES:  Measures that have been deleted are stricken through and measures that have been added are bolded.

 

For more information, please contact the Committee Clerk at (808) 586-6325.

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________________

Rep. David A. Tarnas

Chair